Francisco Quiñones, former secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (DCR) and former judge, announced that eight complaints filed against him were dismissed. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) dismissed all eight between September 1 and September 14, Quiñones said in an interview with Radio Isla 1320. The first to be dismissed, on September 1 after nine months under evaluation, was the only complaint alleging sexual harassment; the others alleged workplace harassment.
"an agenda against me"
Quiñones rejected the allegations, saying people who filed complaints had never exchanged words with him, and that the filings amounted to "an agenda against me". He resigned in August at the request of Governor Jenniffer González, who replaced him with Julie Gómez at the DCR, and also withdrew his nomination as a superior court judge that was then before the Senate.
Quiñones said his dismissal of the complaints mattered because he "came to clean house", alleging he was attacking a lucrative drug-trafficking business inside correctional institutions involving people on the department payroll, and that DEA meetings indicated smuggling went beyond correctional officers. He said he also fired officers who assaulted inmates, recalling the case of a handcuffed inmate assaulted on the floor by an officer he terminated after a sergeant agreed to testify.